Contraceptive autonomy: a historical overview

Abstract Contraception is the set of methods used to prevent pregnancy. To reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, access to these methods is essential, as is the respect for contraceptive autonomy. High unplanned pregnancy rates reveal a failure to control the reproductive process and points to a public health problem, leading to a series of problems related to maternal and perinatal reproductive health. This qualitative integrative review selected articles on principlism and protection bioethics to analyze concepts such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and protection. This study highlights the importance of bioethics in reproductive planning because respecting the individual’s decisions means providing adherence and efficacy to the contraceptive method. There was a great limitation in the choice of definitive contraception by pregnant women in the old law that regulated family planning, a fact that will be analyzed in this article.